A group of performing Christmas elves has been left "traumatised" after being attacked by a gang of teenagers.

Article: The storm has crossed the coast near Cape Flattery and is expected to head south-south-west overnight, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said.
Residents in low-lying areas have been warned to prepare for damaging waves, strong currents and flooding.
It is the strongest storm to hit since Cyclone Yasi, which struck in 2011.
Previously classed as a category-five storm, Ita was downgraded by the BOM to category four and then to category three when it hit the Cape York Peninsula,
In its bulletin at 02:06 local time (16:06 GMT), the BOM said the storm was 11km from Cooktown and 180km from Cairns.
"Very destructive winds with gusts up to 170km/h are possible between Cape Melville and Cooktown", which are in the path of the cyclone, the bulletin said.
Residents in those areas have been urged to "stay calm and remain in a secure shelter".
Everyone in coastal areas has been warned to expect a "dangerous storm tide overnight" and rising sea levels that could flood low-lying areas.
"People living in areas likely to be affected by this flooding should take measures to protect their property as much as possible and be prepared to follow instructions regarding evacuation of the area," BOM said in its advisory.
BBC Weather's Tomasz Schafernaker says that although the very destructive winds will remain close to the centre of the storm, gale force winds and heavy rainfall could extend out as far as 180km (111 miles).
If the eye of the storm heads inland it is likely to blow itself out, but if it stays close to the coastline gales and heavy rain are likely to continue battering communities for days to come, he adds.
The Cape York peninsula is sparsely populated, with residents concentrated in a number of towns.
A cyclone warning is in place for areas from Cape Melville to Cardwell, including Cooktown, Port Douglas, Cairns and a number of inland areas.
Cooktown Mayor Peter Scott said in quotes carried by ABC that around 350 people were in the town's cyclone shelter.
"In polite terms it's blowing its guts out at the...

Summary: Cyclone Ita, a category-three storm packing "very destructive" winds of up to 170km/h (105mph), has hit northern Queensland in Australia.
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Article: The prime minister and Nick Clegg are expected to discuss plans for new measures to tackle the threat.
Their talks come after the UK's terror threat level was raised to "severe" from "substantial" in response to the deepening conflict in Iraq and Syria.
Labour has called for more action to stop Britons being drawn to extremism.
Mr Cameron will make a Commons statement on Monday, proposing new powers to stop would-be terrorists travelling abroad.
He has urged European leaders in Brussels to take co-ordinated action to tackle the group calling itself Islamic State (IS), which has seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.
Speaking before the meeting, he said: "Today in Brussels is an opportunity to talk with other EU leaders and to make sure we all co-ordinate to stop people travelling to Iraq and Syria to stop radicalisation, to confront extremism."
He had previously said the "threat is growing" from Britons travelling to fight with IS, adding that there were "gaps in our armoury" that needed to be strengthened.
The new alert level rates the risk of an attack on the UK as "highly likely", although Downing Street said there was no evidence to suggest one is "imminent".
The rating is the second highest of five possible UK threat levels and is the highest since 2011.
Labour leader Ed Miliband has suggested the introduction of a "mandatory programme" of deradicalisation for people "drawn into the fringes of extremism".
Writing in the Independent, he also urged the government to revisit the decision to scrap the control orders regime for terror suspects.
Talks between Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg, the deputy prime minster and Liberal Democrat leader, come after the Conservatives said they wanted to make it easier to seize the passports of would-be terrorists travelling abroad.
The home secretary already has the power - under the Royal Prerogative - to withhold a passport if it is in the public interest to stop somebody travelling.
Mr Cameron is also likely to consider strengthening terrorism prevention and...

Summary: The terrorist threat posed by Islamist extremists is as much a concern for countries in mainland Europe as it is for the UK, David Cameron has said.
###
Article: The scheme revolves around a website that connects victims and police, gives advice and helps with data recovery.
The number of ransomware victims tripled in the first three months of 2016, according to one estimate.
Ransomware is malware that typically demands a fee to unscramble important data on a compromised device.
The No More Ransom site will be updated as ransomware gangs are tackled, one of the project's partners said.
Co-ordinated by Europol, the initiative also involves the Dutch national police, Intel Security and Kaspersky Labs.
"For a few years now ransomware has become a dominant concern for EU law enforcement," said Wil van Gemert, Europol's deputy director of operations.
"We expect to help many people to recover control over their files, while raising awareness and educating the population on how to maintain their devices clean from malware."
No More Ransom brings together information about what ransomware is, how to avoid falling victim and what to do if a person or company is caught out.
"Right now the only option victims have is to pay the ransom or not," said Raj Samani, European head of Intel Security. "This gives people another option."
Often, people struggle to find out what they can do when they are hit.
With this website, victims will be able to upload scrambled files to identify which strain of ransomware has locked up their data, he said.
"We've seen a threefold increase in infected victims from January to March this year," he added. "And we're seeing a rise in new families of ransomware coming up all the time."
In June, one site that tracks ransomware logged more than 120 separate families of the malicious code being used in different campaigns.
"It's becoming a hugely profitable economy for the criminals," said Mr Samani. "They know there's real money to be made here.
"What's particularly telling is that historically ransomware victims have been consumers and small businesses," he said. "But we are now seeing bigger institutions, hospitals and universities, getting hit."
The site...

Summary: European police agency Europol is teaming up with cybersecurity companies in an initiative aimed at slowing an "exponential" rise in ransomware.
###
Article: Marking a major turning point in the Hundred Years' War, the battle on 25 October 1415 was fought over the English kings' claim to the French throne.
However, legend has it that at Agincourt - like at the 1346 Battle of Crecy - Welsh longbowmen held the key to English success.
Henry V's army of around 8,000 was outnumbered by as much as five to one, yet 500 nimble-fingered Welsh archers were able to cut the heavily-armoured French knights to ribbons after cornering them in a narrow clearing.
Most of them came from Monmouthshire, the birthplace of Henry V, where their exploits are remembered in Monmouth's Agincourt Square - as well as a stained glass window in Brecon Cathedral.
To mark the 600th anniversary of the battle, throughout 2015 a group of enthusiasts from around Brecon and Monmouthshire have been staging a series of events to explain this unlikely medieval alliance.
Bryan Davies, the organiser of Agincourt 600 Wales - Cymru, has been fascinated with the competing folklores ever since he saw the Agincourt roll of honour at Brecon Cathedral as a boy.
"Even then I remember wondering why so many Welshmen from these small towns and villages strung out along what would eventually become the A40 went to fight in an English army; especially considering that this was all taking place at the same time as Owain Glyndwr's rebellion," he said.
"The biggest draw - then as now - was money.  A longbowman could earn sixpence a day while a ploughman made twopence.
"But also some owed loyalty to Norman Marcher lords, while others signed up to make amends for having backed the wrong side after Glyndwr's rebellion failed."
Yet Swansea University's Welsh historian, Dr Matthew Stevens, believes that perhaps the English and Welsh were not ever such strange bed-fellows after all.
"Glyndwr's rebellion really had its popular support in north Wales," he said.
"When he marched south he burnt-out as many Welshmen as he did Norman settlers.
"But even going back as far as Edward I's reign, Welsh archers were an integral part of...

Summary: The Battle of Agincourt 600 years ago is one of the most famous English military successes - but should it really be remembered as a victory for Wales?
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Article: Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where gay marriage is not legal.
Mrs Foster said the DUP would use a petition of concern to block any change to the law over the next five years.
A petition of concern places the requirement of a cross-community majority on a motion in the assembly.
Last year, a majority of MLAs voted in favour of same-sex marriage. but the motion was blocked by a DUP when it deployed the petition.
The measure was designed as a way to safeguard minority rights in Northern Ireland's power-sharing assembly.
If a petition of concern is presented to the assembly speaker, any motion or amendment will need cross-community support.
In such cases, a vote on proposed legislation will only pass if supported by a weighted majority (60%) of members voting, including at least 40% of each of the nationalist and unionist designations present and voting.
Effectively this means that, provided enough MLAs from a particular community agree, that community can exercise a veto over the assembly's decisions.
A valid petition requires the signatures of 30 MLAs. The DUP has 38 seats, including the speaker.
Mrs Foster insisted her party was not anti-gay but said that "very, very vicious" online abuse from LGBT activists demanding a law change made it less likely the DUP would support the move.
"If activists want to have a conversation about where they are coming from, do they seriously think they are going to influence me by sending me abuse?
"No, they are not going to influence me by sending me abuse - in fact, they are going to send me in the opposite direction and people need to reflect on that."
Alliance leader Naomi Long criticised Mrs Foster for "blaming online trolls" for the DUP's position on same-sex marriage.
"It is not just childish and ill-fitting for the office that she holds, but actually is disingenuous because her party has, at every opportunity, sought to block any progress for the LGBT community in Northern Ireland."
On Thursday, Mrs Foster also questioned why the DUP would "give away" the...

Summary: Arlene Foster is "childish" and "disingenuous" for saying online abuse is partly why the DUP is unlikely to change its view on same-sex marriage, Alliance leader Naomi Long has said.
###
Article: Entertainers Starkidz were "cornered" by the gang after a Christmas lights switch-on in Formby, Merseyside.
The performers, including one as young as 13, were abused, with one punched and another threatened with an airgun, said the troupe's manager Jan Hayes.
"We may not return to Formby next year," she said.
"We've been going for five years and we have never had any trouble like this.
"It started off with these teenagers trying take their hats or telling the children they are not real elves.
"Later on, a gang of about 20 cornered our group and one member was punched in the stomach as they were abused."
Ms Hayes said the one of the performers had an airgun held to his head.
"It was a very traumatic experience," she added. "The group member is extremely upset by this."
The elves have received dozens of messages of support via social media from parents.
One local mother, Nicola Cowie, said: "Starkidz bring so much to our community, they bring magic to life.
"Her Elves give it their all, they live and breath as elves while they're dressed in those costumes. I'd be so disgusted if my child acted they way those youths did."
A Merseyside Police spokesman said it was investigating a report of anti-social behaviour by a group of youths at the event.

Summary:


The Welsh Assembly could be renamed the Welsh Parliament before AMs have the legal right to make the change.

Article: Fraudsters are able to work out expiry dates and security code numbers by making multiple invalid attempts on different websites, the team claims.
It is thought a similar method was used in the recent Tesco Bank fraud hack.
Visa said the research did not take into account other layers of security such as its Verified by Visa system.
According to the research, which has been published in the journal IEEE Security & Privacy, fraudsters use a so-called Distributed Guessing Attack to get around security features put in place to stop online fraud.
Mohammed Ali, a PhD student at the university's school of computing science and lead author, said: "The current online payment system does not detect multiple invalid payment requests from different websites.
"This allows unlimited guesses on each card data field, using up to the allowed number of attempts - typically 10 or 20 guesses - on each website.
"Also, different websites ask for different variations in the card data fields to validate an online purchase. This means it's quite easy to build up the information and piece it together like a jigsaw.
"The unlimited guesses, when combined with the variations in the payment data fields make it frighteningly easy for attackers to generate all the card details one field at a time."
The team said MasterCard's security network detected similar attacks after less than 10 attempts.
A spokesman for Visa said: "The research does not take into account the multiple layers of fraud prevention that exist within the payments system, each of which must be met in order to make a transaction possible in the real world.
"Visa is committed to keeping fraud at low levels and works closely with card issuers and acquirers to make it very difficult to obtain and use cardholder data illegally."
It said it also had its own Verified by Visa system which offered improved security for online transactions.

Summary: It is "frighteningly easy" for criminals to get security details for a Visa debit or credit cards, according to research from Newcastle University.
###
Article: A Los Angeles district judge said there were enough similarities between the song and an instrumental by the band Spirit to let a jury decide.
The trial has been scheduled for 10 May.
Stairway to Heaven, released in 1971, is widely seen as one of the greatest rock compositions of all time.
The copyright infringement action has been brought by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for the late Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe, who played on the same bill as Led Zeppelin in the 1960s, and claims he should be given a writing credit on the track.
Led Zeppelin guitarist Page and lead singer Plant are reputed to have written Stairway to Heaven in a remote cottage in Wales.
However, Mr Skidmore has suggested the song came about after the band heard Spirit perform the instrumental Taurus while the bands toured together in 1968 and 1969.
US district judge Gary Klausner said a jury could find "substantial" similarity between the first two minutes of Stairway and Taurus.
"While it is true that a descending chromatic four-chord progression is a common convention that abounds in the music industry, the similarities here transcend this core structure," Judge Klausner ruled.
"What remains is a subjective assessment of the 'concept and feel' of two works... a task no more suitable for a judge than for a jury."
He also said the trustee can get only 50% of any damages awarded, citing a 1967 contract Wolfe signed.

Summary: Led Zeppelin founders Robert Plant and Jimmy Page must face trial in a copyright row over the song Stairway to Heaven, a US court has ruled.
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Article: Net income for the quarter stood at 10.9bn yuan ($1.6bn, Â£1.23bn), beating analysts' expectations.
Revenue grew at its fastest rate in more than three years, the firm said, climbing 52% to 35.7bn yuan.
Tencent is best known for its messaging app WeChat, which dominates the local market.
Out of China's three internet titans, the online gaming and social media company Tencent is the biggest, but also the least known in the West.
Tencent has not attracted the same global attention as its rivals: Alibaba, with charismatic millionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma at the helm, and Baidu, the local equivalent of Google.
However, its WeChat service is just about the biggest app there is in China. According to many Chinese users, it is way ahead of anything people use elsewhere in the world.
Its key element is the integration of a wide spectrum of online services all bundled in one single app.
WeChat offers just about everything from messaging to calling, mobile games, food deliveries and online shopping, payments, even down to splitting the bill when you're out with friends.
The app has more than 700 million people using it and has an unrivalled dominance in the Chinese market, but it is not Tencent's main source of revenue.
"Online gaming has long been the driver for Tencent and it's key to understanding the revenue mix," Duncan Clark, technology analyst and chief executive of consultancy BDA in Beijing, told the BBC.
In June, it was announced that Tencent Holdings and its partners are to buy a majority stake in the Finnish maker of the Clash of Clans game.
The deal values Supercell at around $10.2bn (Â£6.95bn) and Tencent will buy the stake from Japan's SoftBank Group, which invested in Supercell in 2013.
Founded in 2010, Supercell's other games include Hay Day, Boom Beach and Clash Royale.
Like so many other Chinese tech companies, Tencent was initially labelled as being a copycat, filling the gap created by Beijing banning Western online companies to enter the Chinese markets.
Youtube was substituted by Youku, Google by...

Summary: Tencent, China's biggest online entertainment and social network company, has reported a 47% jump in second-quarter profits.
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Article: Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones inherited the Arriva Trains Wales contract in 2007.
He told BBC Wales of his frustration at the franchise and said it should undergo a radical overhaul in 2018.
Arriva said it had invested tens of millions in services, in many cases over and above its commitments.
The Welsh government said it was looking at how to get better value for money.
BBC Wales has been examining spending on rail subsidies as part of an analysis of government expenditure.
The Welsh government is committed to paying Arriva Trains Wales (ATW) a subsidy of £170m a year under the terms of a 15-year deal signed in 2003. It is due to expire in 2018.
According to figures from the Office for Rail Regulation, last year ATW received the highest public subsidy per passenger mile of any franchise across the UK.
Mr Jones said: "What was obvious is that this wasn't a contract that recognised the substantial increase in train passengers that there's been since 2003.
"It was predicated on the basis that it would grow far more slowly than it has, so you have the examples of many trains, particularly the Valley Lines services, where you had severe overcrowding and you hadn't got more services available."
He added: "Because the franchise was written in the way it was, Arriva was under no obligation to provide extra services, and because we felt that it was necessary to meet some of the demand, we had to pay for that under our own revenue, so we were paying over and above the franchise money simply to order to deal with capacity issues.
"The original contract was flawed because it didn't anticipate the increase in passenger numbers."
The former minister now wants to see major changes, including a "not for dividend" model for the franchise after 2018, where profits would be re-invested in the service, rather than being paid to shareholders.
Transport expert Prof Stuart Cole, from the University of Glamorgan, said the model could deliver real improvements for Welsh travellers.
"It has the potential to keep the profits that...

Summary: A £170m railway franchise is "flawed" and has led to a decade of overcrowding, a former transport minister has said.
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Article: 25 June 2015 Last updated at 12:11 BST
The company introduced its creation in a teaser video it posted online, but did not show a rider using the hoverboard.
Lexus told the BBC it had developed a working prototype and would be releasing more videos over the summer.
A number of companies have been trying to develop a hoverboard in 2015, to match predictions for the year made in the Back to the Future films.
The Lexus hoverboard contains magnets cooled by liquid nitrogen to float above a customised skate park in Barcelona.
The company said it did not intend to sell the device.

Summary: A rideable hoverboard has been created by car manufacturer Lexus.
###
Article: Naming rights are among the powers set to be devolved in the Wales Bill now going through the UK Parliament.
But Jane Hutt, Labour's chief whip in the assembly, will call for the Welsh Parliament name to be adopted "at the earliest opportunity", and used unofficially until formalised.
AMs will debate the issue in the Senedd next Tuesday.
Ms Hutt will table a motion proposing that "the National Assembly for Wales agrees that: (a) its name should be changed to the "Welsh Parliament" at the earliest opportunity; and that (b) it should be known unofficially by that name until such a name change can be formalised".
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: "The First Minister is opening up debate among Assembly Members, early in the life of this Assembly, to consider the most appropriate name for the institution.
"It is ultimately a matter for the National Assembly itself; legislation is not required to change what the institution calls itself."
Asked for a response, a Wales Office spokesman said: "The Wales Bill will give the Assembly the power to call itself what it wants."
Glyn Davies, the Conservative backbench MP for Montgomeryshire, said he would refer to the assembly as a parliament, saying on Facebook that AMs "should have done it years ago".
In May, Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns spoke of the Wales Bill offering opportunities "to deliver a real parliament for Wales, with greater powers and a government responsible for raising as well as spending money".
However, differences remain between the two governments on whether powers over income tax should be devolved without a referendum.
Welsh Labour ministers claim that alleged underfunding of Wales by the UK Treasury should be addressed first, while some Tory MPs say their party should keep its promise to voters to hold a referendum.

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Aer Lingus has apologised to customers after it cancelled all its September flights from Belfast to Majorca and from Belfast to Alicante, Spain.

Article: The think-tank said that, on average, most people will see tax and benefit changes which will reduce their income.
If the Tories win, and implement £12bn of social security cuts, they will need to cut benefits by 10%, the IFS said.
Labour's plans for a 10% tax band were dismissed as pointless.
The IFS accuses all the parties of planning to extract a huge amount of money by clamping down on tax avoidance -"mysteriously missed" in all previous clampdowns.
And all of the parties have "a shared lack of any attempt to paint a coherent strategy on tax reform".
Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats plan to increase the personal allowance - the amount one can earn before paying income tax - to £12,500 by the end of the next parliament.
But the IFS said that would not help the 44% of people who now pay no tax.
Instead it said the main beneficiaries would be those in "the middle and upper middle parts of the income distribution".
Under Labour and the Liberal Democrats, the number of higher rate tax-payers would increase from 4.9m now to 6.5m by 2020/21.
But Labour's plans to introduce a 10% starting rate for income tax also came in for criticism.
The IFS said this change would be worth a "princely" 50 pence a week to most tax payers.
"There is no point in introducing such a band," it said.
Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats plan to introduce a mansion tax on properties worth more than £2m.
But the IFS said it would be much more sensible to let the council tax take care of wealth in the housing market.
"Setting up an entirely separate tax is unnecessarily complicated", it claimed.
It said that Labour's plan to raise £1.2bn from the tax annually would mean that owners of properties worth more than £3m would have to pay around £16,600 a year each.
"Setting a revenue target is not a sensible way to make policy," it concluded.
On tax avoidance and evasion, the Conservatives plan to raise £4.6bn by further clamp-downs , Labour plans to raise £6.7bn, and the Liberal Democrats £9.7bn.
"Yet none of the parties has...

Summary: In a withering analysis of the major parties' plans, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has concluded that households can expect lower incomes, whoever wins the election.
###
Article: Ms Chornovol, who was born in Kiev in 1979, is known for her investigative reports on the murky business affairs and conspicuous wealth of Ukraine's top officials, published regularly by the pro-opposition websites Ukrayinska Pravda and Levyy Bereg, as well as for her sometimes daring direct action stunts.
In a blog entry published on Ukrayinska Pravda on the evening of 24 December under the headline "A hangman lives here", Ms Chornovol posted photographs of what she said was the out-of-town residence of Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko in Kiev Region.
On the morning of 25 December, Ukrayinska Pravda quoted fellow activist Oleksiy Hrytsenko as saying that Ms Chornovol had called him the previous evening to say that she had been followed by Berkut riot police officers while taking photographs at the residence of Prosecutor-General Viktor Pshonka.
In earlier blogs, Ms Chornovol described visits by activists to the residences of other senior officials, including Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. In one, she reported that she had personally thrown eggs and written slogans on the fence at the home of Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of the pro-Russian public organization Ukrainian Choice.
Tetyana Chornovol has also organised several marches on foot to the gates of President Viktor Yanukovych's out-of-town residence at Mezhyhirya.
On 25 November, Ms Chornovol was involved in an incident during a pro-EU rally on Kiev's European Square in which opposition supporters attacked a van that they suspected was carrying out covert surveillance.
In video of the incident, Ms Chornovol was seen climbing onto the roof of the van and smashing the roof-window with a heavy object before climbing inside. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) later said that its employees were using the van for standard anti-terrorism precautions.
In August 2013, Ms Chornovol was detained for "disorderly conduct" after she spent six hours on a cornice in the Kiev city hall during a protest intended to draw attention to the "illegitimacy" of the Kiev...

Summary: Journalist and opposition activist Tetyana Chornovol, who was severely beaten after her car was rammed on a road outside Kiev on the night of 24-25 December, is one of the more colourful figures on the Ukrainian media scene.
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Article: Justine Allingham from Portchester, Hampshire has been photographed standing on her hands at hundreds of sites in southern England.
The former martial artist, 24, has flipped upside down on a bouncy castle, outside an EU referendum polling station and at several fire stations.
She is raising money for The Fire Fighters Charity.
Ms Allingham, who works as a licensing officer, is more than 300 days into her challenge and has performed handstands at Winchester Cathedral, Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower and the Ageas Bowl cricket stadium.
She was inspired to begin the quest by her stepdad, Ian Harper, is a firefighter for Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service.
"My connection with the fire service is through my stepdad, and it is through him that I know how much they do,
"I think it takes a very special kind of person to do the things they do and risk their lives to keep other people safe. They are heroes," she added.
Many of her hand stands have been captured on camera and shared on her social media feeds.

Summary: A gymnast is carrying out a charity challenge to perform a handstand every day for a year.
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Article: The former Hulme Library building and the former Beech Mount Children's Home in Harpurhey are the first to be opened up from next month.
Homeless organisations will be able to refer people to the temporary accommodation.
The council is also assessing other empty buildings across the city.
It is part of an ongoing campaign to improve services for homeless people and increase the amount of bed spaces over the winter, the council said.
It said the move would result in an extra 165 bed spaces.
Last month two former Manchester United players allowed a group of about 30 homeless people to stay in the former Stock Exchange building.
Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs are renovating the building into a luxury hotel.
Three buildings in other areas of Manchester, which had previously operated as shared houses, will also provide temporary accommodation, the council confirmed.
The council's rough sleepers team will provide support and help occupants access medical, mental health and drug and alcohol services
Councillor Paul Andrews, executive member for adult health and well being, said the announcement came after months of planning.
He added: "While providing shelter and a roof over their heads is obviously a good start, what's really important is working with charities, faith groups and our own homelessness services to make sure the right help and support is available to rough sleepers so we can help them make the first steps towards getting off the streets for good."

Summary: Empty council buildings in Manchester are to be used as overnight shelters for the city's rough sleepers, the council said.
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Article: Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat, and Republican Lindsey Graham sent the letter to the FBI on Wednesday.
They requested "any warrant applications and court orders... related to wiretaps of President Trump, the Trump campaign, or Trump Tower".
Mr Trump tweeted the unsubstantiated claim over the weekend.
"Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory," he posted in a series of tweets on Saturday morning.
Mr Trump was reportedly in high spirits after making the broadside on Twitter, advisers told the New York Times.
But according to the newspaper, after a round of golf, Mr Trump seemed to think he had gone too far, though still maintained his phones had been tapped.
Despite repeated requests, the White House has not supplied any evidence for the claim.
It has called on Congress to look into the allegation as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.
Mr Graham and Mr Whitehouse, two senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also addressed Wednesday's letter to the Department of Justice.
"Congress must get to the bottom of President Trump's recent allegation that President Obama wiretapped President Trump's phones during the 2016 election," they wrote.
Mr Graham met Mr Trump for lunch on Wednesday, telling CNN it "really was great" and the president is in a "problem-solving, deal-making mode".
But he did not mention whether he discussed the wire-tapping claims with Mr Trump.
Meanwhile, details are emerging about how Mr Obama reacted to the explosive accusations.
The former president reportedly "rolled his eyes" after learning of Mr Trump's allegations, a source close to him told NBC News.
Mr Obama reportedly thinks his successor's unfounded claims "undermine the integrity of the office", according to the source.
But he is "much more concerned" about his successor's actions on health insurance, understaffing the government, rolling back regulations and allowing mentally unstable people to buy guns with no scrutiny, the...

Summary: Two US senators have written to law enforcement to inquire if there is any evidence to support President Donald Trump's claim that he was wiretapped.
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Article: The summertime routes were due to end in late September but due to poor seat sales, the airline is stopping the service at the end of August.
The airline said it had reallocated its planes to "routes with greater demand".
It said it would offer a "full refund or alternative flights" to customers who were booked to fly in September
"We apologise sincerely for the inconvenience caused," said an Aer Lingus statement.

Summary:


A couple accused of hurting their daughter in a suspected shaken baby case said they had been treated like "monsters".

Article: Aslef and the TSSA said good progress had been made in talks and have put off the 24-hours walkouts.
The two unions and the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union were due to strike on 26 January, and 15 and 17 February.
The RMT will make a decision on Monday.
More on this story and other news from London
The proposed agreement includes a 2% pay rise in year one, RPI inflation or 1% (whichever is greater) in years two and three, and RPI plus 0.25% or 1% (whichever is greater) in year four, plus a Â£500 bonus for staff on lines where the night Tube will run.
LU chief operating officer Steve Griffiths said: "We have had productive talks at Acas."
Finn Brennan, lead negotiator of the train drivers' union Aslef , said: "The determination of our members brought London Underground management back to the table.
"We have dragged them kicking and screaming into the 21st century with an agreement to deliver modern, flexible working patterns for our members and an above-inflation pay rise."
TSSA General Secretary Manuel Cortes warned that the strikes pencilled in for February may still go ahead as the union remains in dispute with LU over "serious issues" surrounding passenger and industry safety.
The RMT said it will hold a mass meeting of representatives on Monday, a day before the first of three strikes is due to start, before making a decision on whether to suspend the strikes.
The Night Tube was due to begin last September but has been delayed after the unions raised concerns over pay and conditions and went on strike over the dispute.

Summary: Two unions have suspended planned strikes after London Underground (LU) made an offer on pay over a new night service.
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Article: Media playback is not supported on this device
The race begins with a 173km stage to Scarborough on Friday, 28 April.
Stage two see riders start in Tadcaster and go 122.5km to Harrogate, before ending with a 194.5km stage from Bradford to Fox Valley, Sheffield.
"I can't wait to see the world's best riders tackling these routes," said Sir Gary Verity, chief executive of race organisers Welcome to Yorkshire.
"We've worked hard to design a course which showcases Yorkshire's stunning scenery, as well as delivering a thrilling sporting event.
"Last year, the race attracted two million spectators and generated £60m for the local economy, and we'll go from strength to strength again next year."
The women's Tour de Yorkshire will be held on the same stage as the second stage of the men's event, with the women starting in the morning and the men in the afternoon.
This is the third edition of the event, won in 2016 by Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, which was started to extend the legacy of the county hosting the 2014 Grand Depart for the Tour de France.
The race will start outside Bridlington Spa and head into Pocklington for the first intermediate sprint.
There are classified climbs up the Côtes de Garrowby Hill and Goathland before the race hits the coastline again at Whitby for the second sprint of the day.
The route continues on to Robin Hood's Bay for the third and final climb and then into Scarborough for the finish along North Bay.
Starting on Tadcaster bridge, this stage takes the riders through some of Yorkshire's best known market towns.
They will venture into Knaresborough, where the first intermediate sprint points are up for grabs, and the day's sole categorised climb comes on the fearsome Côte de Lofthouse before the descent into Masham.
It is then on to Ripon for the second intermediate sprint and the race will skirt Fountains Abbey before a fast approach to Harrogate. The action finishes along Parliament Street, just as it did on the opening stage of the 2014 Tour de France.
In the toughest stage in the...

Summary: The 2017 Tour de Yorkshire will start in Bridlington and finish two days later in Sheffield on Sunday, 30 April.
###
Article: Its analysis suggests Brexit would cause inflation to rise, eroding the value of state pension increases, costing recipients £137 a year.
Those with an additional pension pot worth £60,000 would see its value drop by £1,900, the Treasury said.
However, Vote Leave said the analysis was "utterly outrageous".
Former Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who is campaigning for Vote Leave, said: "This is an utterly outrageous attempt by the government to do down people's pensions and is little more than a cynical attempt to distract from the government's broken promises on immigration."
"The biggest threat to British pensions is the European Commission's proposals to undermine occupational pensions, which the government themselves have described as 'damaging and reckless'.
"Meanwhile, tax proposals from Eurozone countries will wipe billions off British assets hitting pension funds hardest," he said.
The Treasury analysis also looked at the impact Brexit would have on someone aged 50.
Its analysis found that an individual with pension savings of £20,000, who is contributing 8% of their earnings into a pension fund between now and 2030, would be between £223 and £335 a year worse off in retirement.
Chancellor George Osborne said: "Much of the [Brexit] debate so far has focused on the potential economic fallout of a vote for Leave for those now in work, in terms of the impact on their jobs.
"But it's important that pensioners understand what's at stake for them too on 23 June.
"Pensioners who have worked hard all their lives deserve dignity, security and certainty in retirement. That's what we all hope for and what any responsible government should seek to provide," the Chancellor said.
Pensions minister Baroness Altmann, told the BBC's Today programme, that there was a "consensus" among major economic bodies such as the Institute of Fiscal Studies, the OECD, the head of the IMF and the Bank of England  that the British economy would be weaker if there was a vote to leave the EU.
"I have looked at pensions for years....

Summary: The Treasury has warned that millions of current and future pensioners will be worse off if the UK leaves the European Union.
###
Article: Because Balls's analysis has nudged me to remember that there is one big policy judgement that George Osborne and David Cameron have to make between now and Budget day on March 18 - which is whether to stick to the plan outlined in December's autumn statement to generate an overall budget surplus of £23.1bn in 2019-20.
This really matters, because it is the Tories' pledge that they will stick to the "fiscal aggregates" of that Autumn Statement, which include that £23.1bn surplus, which means that the cuts they would have to make are so much bigger than a Labour government would have to do.
The point is that Labour has promised only to balance the current budget - ignoring investment - by the end of the next parliament.
That would give Labour £50bn more to spend than the Tories every year from then on - which is a colossal sum, equivalent to half the annual budget of NHS England.
But here is the thing.
The Tories' more general fiscal policy is to generate a budget surplus in all normal years. So in theory they could revise their fiscal plans for the next parliament and simply go for a miniscule surplus by 2019-20.
One consequence would be they would have to find £23bn less in cuts.
Even so, there would be a sizeable difference between the cuts the Tories would have to find and those required by a Labour government.
As a minimum, Labour would have £27bn odd more to spend every year than the Tories - because of its "rule" allowing it to borrow to finance investment.
In practice, given the prime minister's desire for personal tax cuts, a Tory government would probably have to find around £40bn more cuts than Labour.
And although cuts on that magnitude would not be painless or easy, the Institute for Fiscal Studies calculates that the current government has already announced and legislated for tax increases and cuts to welfare spending that should deliver a third of these savings.
To be clear, finding a bit less than £30bn of additional spending cuts, as a Tory government would have to do, would be challenging -...

Summary: In the light of Ed Balls's speech today, which claims that the Tories would cut public spending by a further £70bn if they were to win the general election, I need to slightly amend my judgement that next week's Budget is bound to be the dullest on record.
###
Article: Just 61% of Scots have broadband, compared with 74% of people across the whole of the UK.
Broadband connection is particularly low in Greater Glasgow, where the figure is just 50%.
One reason why take-up is so low may be that a relatively high proportion of Scots never use the internet.
Ofcom's Scottish director Vicki Nash warned that with so many public services now available online, Scots were at risk of being left behind.
About 30% of adults in Scotland say they do not use the internet in any location, compared with 20% across the UK as a whole.
Just under two-thirds of Scots have a computer in their home but across the UK the figure is 77%.
Take-up of broadband was particularly low amongst those aged between 16 and 34, people aged 55 and people on a low income or lower down the social scale.
'No need'
Although there is some concern about the speed of broadband connections in some parts of the country, this is probably not the reason why such a high proportion of Scots have neither broadband nor a home computer.
Ofcom's research also found that the bulk of people who do not have the internet at home did not intend to get it within the next year.
Most of them said this was because they did not know how to use a computer, felt there was no need for broadband or even that they were too old to use the internet.
However, not all the findings were negative. People in Scotland aged between 35 and 54 were actually slightly more likely to have broadband at home than people across the UK.
The internet's increasing importance for both businesses and public services was also highlighted.
For instance, many councils are now placing public notices on a website and some observers believe fresh moves to try to remove the legal obligation to place them in the press are likely within the next few years.
Ms Nash said: "Despite increasingly sophisticated broadband packages available to more and more Scots, we are less likely than the rest of the UK to take up broadband.
"With an ever-increasing range of public services...

Summary: Scots are still the least likely in the UK to have a broadband internet connection, according to a report from the communications regulator Ofcom.
###
Article: Craig Stillwell and Carla Andrews's baby girl Effie was taken away from them for almost eight months.
It has emerged she has a rare medical condition, known as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome type IV (EDS), which causes "easy bruising".
The case has been stopped and Effie is home with her parents in Aylesbury.
Mr Stillwell was arrested at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, accused of causing grievous bodily harm after Effie collapsed last August, aged five months.
"The hospital treated us like monsters," he said.
"It was heartbreaking."
LIVE: For more Buckinghamshire stories
Effie was put in foster care and her parents were permitted to see her just three times a week for 90 minutes at a contact centre.
Buckinghamshire County Council took the case to the family court, seeking to put the little girl into local authority care.
Miss Andrews researched what could have caused bleeding on her daughter's brain and tests revealed she suffered from EDS IV.
The condition is characterised by "thin and translucent skin, easy bruising, vascular and arterial rupture".
The council's application was withdrawn last week and the judge Karen Venables said the family had experienced "unimaginable horror".
Miss Andrews said it was "amazing" to have her daughter back home.
The couple, both 23, said they were not going to take any action against the authorities but wanted to raised awareness of the condition.
Miss Andrews said: "I feel bitter towards the hospital. I know they have to do their job but they should've gone about it differently."
Mr Stillwell added: "We want to get the awareness out there that these connected tissue disorders do exist.
"They may be invisible but they can cause a lot of damage and they do mimic child abuse and shaken baby syndromes."

Summary:


A new visitors' centre proposed for Sherwood Forest will ruin "a priceless" tract of land and threaten wildlife, opponents say.

Article: Richard Sumner and Julian Barnfield, of the Heythrop Hunt, pleaded guilty at Oxford Magistrates' Court to charges brought by the RSPCA.
Film gathered by anti-hunt monitors over four days during the 2011/12 season was played in court.
Sumner and Barnfield were the master and huntsman of the hunting group.
They pleaded guilty to four separate counts, on four separate occasions, of unlawfully hunting a wild fox with dogs.
Heythrop Hunt Ltd also pleaded guilty to four counts of the same charge.
The presiding magistrate called the RSPCA's £327,000 costs "staggering".
He said the public could question whether the charity's funds to bring the case to court could have been better spent.
Sumner was ordered to pay a £1,800 and £2,500 in court costs.
Barnsfield was ordered to pay a £1,000 fine £2,000 in costs.
In addition, Heythrop Hunt Ltd was fined £4,000 and must pay £15,000 in costs.
The prosecution said hounds had been encouraged to chase foxes -  which is banned under legislation that came into force in 2005.
Mr Cameron rode with the Heythrop Hunt on six occasions before the change in legislation.
Both Sumner and Barnfield have since retired from their positions.
An RSPCA spokesman said it was a "landmark" case.
"[It] is thought to be the first where a hunt has faced corporate charges," he said.
"It is also the first taken by the RSPCA involving the prosecution of a hunt itself."

Summary: Members of an Oxfordshire-based hunt that Prime Minister David Cameron has previously ridden with have been fined for hunting foxes illegally.
###
Article: From April 2017, a new levy on company payrolls will help to double government spending on apprentices, say ministers.
Under the scheme, businesses will be able to use vouchers from the levy to pay for apprenticeships.
Labour says the revisions are a U-turn by ministers, after a "huge outcry" and a "sustained campaign".
From next April, firms will pay into the apprenticeship levy, a new tax based on the number of people on their payroll in England.
And from May they will be able to draw down vouchers from the levy to fund apprenticeships.
The government says the aim of the £2.5bn apprenticeships plan is to boost the number of people of all ages able to gain high-quality skills and experience, and to improve the overall skills of the workforce.
Skills Minister Robert Halfon said the latest changes would "boost our economic productivity, increase our skills base and give millions a leg up on the ladder of opportunity".
Business critics of the scheme had originally feared it would be inflexible, while colleges said that amendments announced during the summer recess would have seen cuts of up to 50% for apprenticeships for the poorest teenagers.
Businesses were also concerned that a demand that they spend their vouchers within 18 months did not fit with their existing recruitment and training cycles.
The latest changes include:
The detailed plans gained support from TUC General Secretary, Frances O'Grady, who said the levy would give apprenticeship funding "a welcome boost".
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said it was clear the government had listened but warned that these "big shifts in the apprenticeship programme... will need sensitive and watchful handling".
Labour's shadow minister for apprenticeships said the government "have had to make a major U-turn to their original proposals".
"It is a credit to the new minister that he recognised that this needs to be done to preserve any credibility for the government's social mobility position," said Gordon Marsden.
"We need to see the...

Summary: Updated government plans for apprenticeship funding in England have been welcomed by critics who feared they would exclude the poor.
###
Article: The latest Bank of Scotland PMI found Scottish business activity returned to growth in December.
But input costs continued to rise, with the rate of inflation quickening to a 67-month high.
Subsequently, output prices increased at their fastest rate since April 2011, the report said.
Service providers linked the rise in input costs to higher prices for food, fuel and timber, while goods producers pointed to the depreciation of the pound.
The December survey of purchasing managers indicated that private sector output bounced back into growth, reaching its highest level for three months.
The expansion was broad-based across Scotland's manufacturing and service sector, with panel members linking this to stronger underlying demand.
The data also pointed to a return to growth in Scotland's workforce numbers, although the rate of job creation remained only moderate overall.
There was also a slight increase in new business during the final month of 2016, ending a two-month sequence of decline.
Nick Laird, from Bank of Scotland Commercial Banking, said: "With output, new orders and employment all returning to growth, and backlogs slowing, Scotland's economy bounced back at the end of 2016.
"The improvement in business conditions across both the manufacturing and service sectors puts Scotland on a firmer footing as we start the new year.
"Headwinds remain, however, principally through the continued increase in input costs, which rose at their sharpest pace for 67 months.
"Given the strain this will place on operating margins, firms throughout Scotland will undoubtedly be looking for this to ease during the year ahead."

Summary: Scottish firms raised their selling prices last month at the fastest pace for nearly six years as cost pressures intensified, according to a report.
###
Article: Twelve whales became stranded on the Wadden Islands off the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark last week.
Inverness-based Dr Andrew Brownlow has been among the scientists to assist with post mortems on five that died.
He has been working with experts from the Netherlands and Belgium.
Dr Brownlow and the other Scottish-based scientists involved are from Scotland's Rural College's Scottish Marine Stranding Scheme.
They responded to a call for assistance in examining the large whales before their internal organs were crushed and damaged by the weight of the whales' bodies.
Dr Brownlow said: "The final results are pending and will be released in time.
"However, we have already been able to rule out many potential causes for the stranding.
"These animals were in good body condition but in the process of stranding became crushed under their own weight, which sadly led to their death."
He added: "We took samples which will be analysed and for their diet, life history and contaminant burden which will also help us understand what may have happened to these whales."

Summary: Scottish-based scientists have been helping to investigate the cause of one Europe's largest sperm whale stranding events.
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Article: The disease, carried by a biting midge, can be fatal to sheep and cows.
The return of the disease to central France last year has led to concerns the virus could spread, particularly to southern England.
Government vets say there is an 80% chance that infected midges will arrive in the UK this summer.
Humans are not affected, but bluetongue has economic impacts for farmers, who can lose livestock and face restrictions on moving animals from farm-to-farm.
Government Deputy Chief Vet Simon Hall said robust disease surveillance measures were in place and the situation in France was being carefully monitored.
''The risk of incursion from infected midges is difficult to predict at this stage because it is highly dependent on the level of disease on the continent, the proximity to the UK and the weather."
He said animal keepers should remain vigilant for signs of the disease and report any suspicions to their vet and the Animal and Plant Health Agency.
Bluetongue facts
Bluetongue is carried and spread by biting midges of a family known as Culicoides.
There is no cure but animals can be vaccinated against the virus.
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has urged farmers to consider whether to vaccinate their stock.
Prof John Blackwell of the BVA said: ''We'd recommend farmers speak to their local vet about the benefits of vaccination, given their locality and individual circumstances, and especially if farmers have any concerns about their livestock.''
Bluetongue was found in the UK in 2007 as well as in much of northern Europe.
In August 2015 the disease was found on a farm in France - the first outbreak in the EU since 2011.
It has since spread north, raising the risk that infected midges could be blown across the channel and infect flocks and herds in the UK.
Mild weather is a factor, as the virus reproduces better at warmer temperatures.
Any outbreak in the UK is thought most likely to occur in late summer.

Summary: Farmers are being warned to expect an outbreak of a highly infectious livestock disease known as bluetongue this summer.
###
Article: The Friends of Sherwood Forest say the Â£5.3m centre, located on the edge of a country park, will devastate the area.
"It has all sorts of wildlife - insect life and newts," the charity's group spokesman Adrian Wilson said.
Nottinghamshire County Council said the new site would "balance the interests" of the community and visitors.
The current centre is in Sherwood Forest Country Park, on land designated as a site of special scientific interest but plans are to move it to Forest Corner, on grassland on the edge of the park.
The council has signed a contract with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to build and run a new one.
County council spokesman Derek Higton said: "The centre will be run by one of the world's leading conservation organisations - and that's why we partnered with them."
Updates on this story and more from Nottinghamshire
"We are confident we can balance the interests of the community and the interests of the 350,000 people who visit Sherwood Forest and Major Oak every year."
Detailed plans have not yet been submitted.
Mr Wilson said: "It is priceless - if you were to drive up the road, on a Sunday lunchtime, you would see the cricketers out here all in their whites, people sat round watching the cricket match.
"You get that feeling straight way - this is England."
Shawn and Linda Geery, who walk their dog in the country park, said: "It is too near the edge of the forest, the parking problems will be horrendous."
Construction is scheduled to start in December 2016 with the opening expected by winter 2017.

Summary:


Clutching red carnations, they approached the armed police manning the security cordon: four Russian women determined to leave a tribute outside their embassy.

Article: QE was introduced as an emergency measure during the financial crisis to pump money directly into the financial system and keep banks lending.
A decade later, the stimulus policies are still in place, but he said they have "made the world more resilient".
But he also said gaps in understanding these relatively new tools remain.
As the economic recovery in the eurozone gathers pace, investors are watching closely for when the ECB will ease back further on its 60bn euro (Â£55bn) a month bond-buying programme.
Central bankers, including Mr Draghi, are meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, later this week, where they are expected to discuss how to wind back QE without hurting the economy.
On Monday, a former UK Treasury official likened the stimulus to "heroin" because it has been so difficult to wean the UK, US and eurozone economies off it.
In a speech in Lindau, Germany on Wednesday, Mr Draghi defended QE and the ECB's policy of forward guidance on interest rates.
"A large body of empirical research has substantiated the success of these policies in supporting the economy and inflation, both in the euro area and in the United States," he said.
The ECB buying relatively safe assets such as government bonds means that banks can lend more and improve access to credit for riskier borrowers, Mr Draghi said.
He added: "Policy actions undertaken in the last 10 years in monetary policy and in regulation and supervision have made the world more resilient. But we should continue preparing for new challenges."
Critics of QE argue it has inflated asset bubbles and stoked inequality by rewarding the asset-rich while punishing savers.
Lord Macpherson, who was permanent secretary to the Treasury when the Bank of England started QE in 2009, tweeted on Monday: "QE like heroin: need ever increasing fixes to create a high. Meanwhile, negative side effects increase. Time to move on."
The Bank of England's balance sheet swelled to Â£500bn last year, while the US Federal Reserve held $4.2 trillion (Â£3.3tn) of assets - which it is now...

Summary: European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has said unconventional policies like quantitative easing (QE) have been a success both sides of the Atlantic.
###
Article: Anuja Ravindra Dhir began her career in the 1980s. She became a circuit judge at the Old Bailey in February.
The 49-year-old said at first, most clients did not want to be represented by a young Asian Scottish female.
She also said that, when she wanted to go to university in the 1970s, she was told to be a hairdresser instead.
As well as being the first non-white circuit judge at the Old Bailey, Judge Dhir is the youngest.
She said: "My daughter, it would never cross her mind being treated differently because she's a female or because she's not white, whereas in my generation we did.
"We were surprised when people didn't treat us differently. Not now, but when I came to the bar, I was not expecting to be treated like a white Oxbridge male at all."
At school in Dundee, Judge Dhir said she was steered towards a different career.
"I wasn't the cleverest person in my year at school," she said.
"I'm dyslexic so I find it difficult to read and write. And when I went to school in the 1970s in Scotland, women were not encouraged to aim high.
"When I first said to a teacher at school I wanted to go to university when I was older, she told me that I should aim a little lower and suggested I try hairdressing instead."
Judge Dhir said when she was called to the bar in 1989, most barristers were male, white, from a public school, and with "some connection" to the profession.
"Now that's four differences already before we start," she said.
"Added to that, most clients did not want a young Asian Scottish female representing them so that made it harder for me to build a client base."
Judge Dhir said she once had to produce her wig and gown before security allowed her into court.
"I got used to turning up at courts and people saying to me 'Witness? - no - Defendant? - no' and looking rather surprised when I said I was the advocate," she said.
"I'm often asked if there is a glass ceiling. I think sometimes there are two ceilings - or no glass ceiling at all.
"There is one glass ceiling that's in our minds, that's what we...

Summary: The Old Bailey's first non-white circuit judge has said she was often mistaken for a witness or defendant when she started working as a lawyer.
###
Article: They teased out the effects of the blade's sharpness, the tension applied to the ribbon and the speed it moves.
As the ribbon bends around the blade, its outermost side stretches and permanently deforms, producing curls.
Sharper blades and slower movement make tighter curls - but the pulling force has an ideal strength, above which the curls become less pronounced.
The UK-based team will present the study on Wednesday at the March Meeting of the American Physical Society in Baltimore; it also appeared last month in the journal PNAS.
In their experiments, a thin ribbon - made in this case from a transparent PVC film - was draped over a blade and a weight was hung from the end. The ribbon was then wound onto a cylinder in order to drag it across the blade.
The team measured the width of curls produced by different weights and winding speeds - and also created a mathematical model to show that these could be explained by predictable changes in the structure of the ribbon.
Senior author Anne Juel, from the University of Manchester, said it was fairly straightforward to understand why a slower movement produces greater curling:
"It takes a certain amount of time for the stress in the ribbon to relax, and the irreversible deformation to take place."
That relaxation - or "yield" - is what leaves the ribbon curled, because the outer side of the ribbon is permanently stretched compared to the side that was touching the blade.
Similarly, then, a sharper blade increases the stretch and the yield - making tighter curls.
But putting greater tension on the ribbon, with heavier weights, only increased curling up to a point.
This, Prof Juel explained, is because the deformation can spread too far into the ribbon:
"The first part that's going to start to yield is the outermost part of the ribbon, because that's the point where the stress is going to be highest. And then as you apply larger loads, the yield is going to infiltrate deeper and deeper inside the ribbon."
Eventually, with enough pulling power, the distortion of the...

Summary: Scientists have explained precisely how and why a ribbon curls when we run a scissor blade down one side of it.
###
Article: The rate currently goes up by 2% above inflation each year but the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health wants that increased to 5%.
It says an extra £100m per year would be generated to spend on anti-smoking projects and the rate of decline in smoking would be doubled.
Tobacco manufacturers described the proposal as "counterproductive".
The MPs recommend that spending on anti-smoking schemes should be increased from £200m a year to £300m, which would be funded by the increase in tax.
In their report, being submitted to the Treasury's Comprehensive Spending Review, they also said cutting the number of smokers would reduce demand on the NHS.
Group chair Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East, said: "The APPG on Smoking and Health calls on the chancellor to increase tobacco taxes and invest in tobacco control in the forthcoming Spending Review.
"Smokers don't just die early, they suffer many years of disease and disability before they do, putting pressure not just on the NHS, but additional disability and social care costs and reduced income tax.
"Every pound invested over the next five years could deliver £11 to the public purse."
The Tobacco Manufacturers' Association said tobacco tax had increased by more than 40% over the past five years - and that the UK had Europe's most expensive tobacco.
"Every time taxation is increased on tobacco it loses the Treasury millions that could have been spent on public services," said its director general Giles Roca.
Forest, an organisation that describes itself as the friend of the smoker, said higher taxes would lead to more people buying tobacco abroad or on the black market.

Summary: Tax on tobacco should be raised to persuade smokers to quit, a parliamentary group says.
###
Article: The French energy company said Hinkley Point C in Somerset will not start generating power in 2023 as planned.
EDF says it will provide a revised timetable for the Â£24.5bn plant when it takes a final investment decision on the project.
The news comes as a report for the OECD says that the UK's projected nuclear costs are the highest in the world.
The delay to Hinkley Point delay is bad news for the government. The UK's old coal-fired power plants will be forced to close before 2023 under EU air quality rules and the gap in generating capacity will have to be filled some other way.
EDF has been struggling with securing finance for the project but hoped to secure Chinese funds when the Premier Xi Jin Ping visits London next month.
Its chief executive, Jean-Bernard Levy, said he still had "full confidence in the success of the Hinkley Point project".
But it has been dogged by finance problems and negotiations with the EU over state aid.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "The UK Government and EDF are continuing to work together to finalise the project. The deal must represent value for money and is subject to approval by ministers."
Unite called on Energy Secretary Amber Rudd to press potential investors to make a decision on Hinkley Point.
"Business and domestic consumers face the very real prospect of power cuts and the lights going out in the years to come, if the final investment decision on Hinkley Point is not made very soon," said national officer Kevin Coyne.
The OECD report shows that the cost of a nuclear plant in Britain is projected to be almost three times higher than in China or South Korea.
Costs of nuclear are hard to compare from one country to another, but the gulf between projected costs in China and the UK is indisputable.
It is partly a question of scale given that China is building dozens of new nuclear stations. But it is also partly because state-run nuclear enterprises can borrow at very low or even zero rates of interest.
Some experts want the UK to take...

Summary: EDF has admitted that the construction of Britain's first new nuclear power plant in decades has been delayed.
###
Article: They had known Andrei Karlov well, the ambassador gunned down in Ankara.
And they struggled to hold back their emotion.
"This is a big tragedy for all of us - for all Russian people", said Larissa Lutkova Turkkan, who works in a Russian cultural association here.
"He was a very good man - and a brilliant diplomat."
I ask whether she understands the anger of some here towards the Russian government. She pauses.
"I think I understand - but it is really difficult to talk right now".
Russia and Turkey have been profoundly shaken by the murder of a seasoned diplomat who colleagues describe as softly-spoken and professional.
And yet it has not prompted a new crisis in bilateral relations as some feared.
Instead, Presidents Erdogan and Putin have used the same language, calling it "a provocation" aimed at derailing ties and vowing that it would not succeed.
In fact it could, conversely, bring together Russia and Turkey against the common enemy of terror, encouraging greater co-operation between two countries that have always had a tricky relationship.
The Russo-Turkish wars spanned four centuries. And a hundred years since their last military clash, their dispute has continued, with Ankara and Moscow taking opposite sides in Syria.
Turkey has backed the rebels opposed to President Assad, while Russia's military intervention was key to propping up the Assad regime. A year ago, their feud reached a climax as Turkey shot down a Russian bomber on its border with Syria.
President Putin called it "a stab in the back by an accomplice of terror". Moscow said President Erdogan's family was benefiting from oil smuggling by so-called Islamic State.
There was the real possibility of a direct military confrontation. For months tempers flared - until President Erdogan wrote a letter of apology to his Russian counterpart, fuelled partly by the need to coax Russian tourists back to Turkish beaches.
Syria is the reason behind the warm words now. As Western powers have seen their influence on the Syrian war implode, they've...

Summary:


The safety of patients using the 111 service in Oxfordshire could be "compromised", according to the county's leading health body.

Article: So who is right: the markets or the ministers? The swing factor between a continuing stable but uninspiring global recovery and relapse into a global downturn is China.
The big question is: how steep is China's economic slowdown? Those looking for an answer have pointed to China's surprise decision to devalue its currency in early August.
Does this suggest that policy-makers are panicking and trying to boost exports?
The fundamental problem that China faces is that its economy is deeply unbalanced - both internally and externally - at a time that it is also slowing.
Economists tend to look at an economy for internal balance (a state of affairs in which neither employment nor inflation is too high or too low) and external balance (a situation in which a country's current account (its borrowing or lending to the rest of the world) is neither too high nor too low.
China is currently struggling to achieve both kinds of balance.
Chinese policy-makers have a tricky task ahead but not unmanageable one.
It's a challenge that could be made much easier by some global policy co-ordination and co-operation.
At the heart of China's problem is the  "impossible trinity" of international macroeconomics.
The impossible trinity - or trilemma - is the idea that it is impossible for a country to have three things at the same time: a stable currency, the free movement of capital (i.e. the absence of capital controls) and independent monetary policy.
A country can instead choose just two of the options from this policy suite.
The UK, in common with most developed economies, has free capital movement and an independent monetary policy - but not a controlled exchange rate.
The Bank of England sets interest rates at a level it thinks is right for the UK economy and - as capital can flow into and out of the UK at will - the exchange rate is determined by the market.
If, as in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the UK wanted to retain free movement of capital but have a stable exchange rate then it would cease to have an independent...

Summary: This weekend's meeting of the G20 group of countries sounded a relatively optimistic note on the global economy, in sharp contrast to the recent price falls in world asset markets.
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Article: Aslef, which represents most of ScotRail's 1,200 drivers, said it had rejected a final 2.5% pay rise offer from management.
The union is unhappy at productivity improvements linked to the offer, such as the use of driver-only trains.
The ScotRail Alliance said it felt its offer was "fair".
Aslef's Scottish district secretary, Kevin Lindsay, said: "We have rejected ScotRail's final offer and a report will be sent to the Aslef executive committee recommending rejection of the offer and a call for industrial action if ScotRail fail to reopen the talks and make a satisfactory offer.
"We want the company to come back to the table and make an offer which is acceptable to ourselves and more importantly the drivers."
It is understood that industrial action could take place as early as the end of August, if no agreement is reached.
A spokeswoman for the ScotRail Alliance, which includes Network Rail, said: "During our latest round of discussions we made what we felt was a fair offer that would see drivers receive an above inflation pay rise and a bonus payment for working Sundays.
"We think it important that, as part of this deal, we work together with the unions to find ways to make sure that our working practices deliver more for our customers.
"We are, of course, more than happy to continue discussions."
Earlier this week, the threat of a UK national rail strike was averted after Network Rail agreed a two-year pay deal with unions.
The deal included a 2% pay rise this year and a pay increase in line with RPI inflation next year.

Summary: ScotRail train drivers are set to vote on possible industrial action after pay talks broke down between management and unions.
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Article: The government has accepted proposals for changes in 25 council areas which will take effect next year.
There will be some changes in all mainland council areas apart from Argyll and Bute, Dundee and the Borders.
A planned cut in the number of councillors in Dumfries and Galloway will go ahead despite local opposition.
Separate changes to the three island councils - including moves away from multi-member wards - may be made later.
Scottish government parliamentary business minister Joe FitzPatrick said: "Local government plays an important role in delivering key services across Scotland and it's important for the sake of democracy and for local service delivery that councils are as representative as possible of the communities they serve.
"That's why the Boundary Commission is legally obliged to hold regular reviews of council wards and councillor numbers, to ensure these reflect changes in population - this is the fifth such review since the commission was created in 1973 and we are pleased to accept the vast majority of their recommendations.
"In a small number of cases - Argyll and Bute, Dundee City and Scottish Borders - we have listened to local representations and left boundaries as they currently stand, to ensure that strong historic ties in particular areas and communities are maintained.
"Significant concerns were raised about aspects of the commission's proposals for those areas, in particular that they would not reflect local communities.
"While the commission did try to address these in its final recommendations, it was clear from the responses to those recommendations that many of those concerns remained.
"We therefore decided that the better course would be to keep the status quo for those areas."
Argyll and Bute Council said it was pleased plans for changes there were over-ruled.
Councillor Dick Walsh, Leader of Argyll and Bute Council, said: "We previously stated that reducing the number of councillors in Argyll and Bute would reduce our communities' access to a local councillor and strongly...

Summary: Changes to council ward boundaries are to be made in most of Scotland's local authority areas.
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Article: Around 19.3 million people - 33% - were in poverty at least once, compared with 25% of people across the EU, the Office for National Statistics found.
But only 7.8% were defined as being in "persistent income poverty" in 2013 - less than half the 15.9% EU average.
Pensioners and single parent families were found to struggle the most.
The ONS records someone as being in poverty if they live in a household with disposable income below 60% of the national average, before housing costs.
Persistent poverty is defined as being in poverty in the current year and at least two of the three preceding years.
Summing up the findings, the ONS said: "Studies reveal that although some people are stuck in poverty, the majority of 'the poor' consist of a constantly changing group of different individuals."
The report added that although "poverty persists only for a relatively small minority, evidence suggests that those who have already been in poverty are more likely to experience poverty again in the future than those who have never been in poverty".
19.3m
people experienced poverty for at least one year between 2010-13
4.6m
were in persistent poverty - for three of the past four years
60% of single parent households experienced poverty between 2010-13
40% of those aged 65+ experienced poverty between 2010-13
13th  highest poverty rate in EU
The UK ranked 13th out of the 28 EU member states for "overall poverty" - the proportion of people falling below the poverty line at some point during the four-year period. The ranking was topped by Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Spain.
The country with lowest overall poverty levels was the Czech Republic, followed by the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark.
But since comparable figures were first made available in 2008, the UK has consistently had a persistent poverty rate lower than the EU average.
The UK ranked 20th, with only the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Slovakia and Slovenia recording better results.
Jonathan Cribb, research economist at the...

Summary: Almost a third of the UK population fell below the official poverty line at some point between 2010 and 2013, figures show.
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Article: Correspondence between Edinburgh Zoo and the Scottish government had suggested this could be the due date.
A spokesman for the zoo has said it is hard to predict a specific date for any cub being born, and that the breeding season can last until late September.
Tian Tian, who arrived at the zoo in 2011, was artificially inseminated earlier this year.
A spokesman for the zoo said: "We can confirm our female giant panda, Tian Tian, will not be giving birth today.
"Breeding pandas is exceptionally complex and we anticipate that her breeding cycle will continue into September.
"We're closely monitoring Tian Tian and we will share any news as soon as possible."
Panda reproduction is a notoriously difficult process, with females only ovulating once a year.
Tian Tian was sent to Edinburgh as part of a breeding pair with Yang Guang.
They are the only giant pandas living in the UK.
They arrived on loan from China in December 2011 and are due to remain at Edinburgh Zoo for a decade.
The zoo first announced it was in negotiations to bring a pair of giant pandas to Scotland in 2008.
The pair were brought to the UK under an agreement between the UK and Chinese governments.
Described as a gift from China, they were the first giant pandas to live in the UK for 17 years.

Summary: Edinburgh Zoo has said it does not expect its female panda Tian Tian to give birth on Friday.
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Article: Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG), which overseas health services, has said the non-emergency service lacks "resilience".
South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) runs the phone line and has said calls have increased by 16% in the last year.
It claimed staff shortages contributed to problems in answering calls.
In a risk assessment report published by OCCG, it said: "Patient safety in the 111 service will be compromised due to performance issues caused by a lack of resilience to peaks in demand."
OCCG has ranked the phone line as a "red risk", the highest category for risks to patient safety.
It comes after an undercover investigation by the Daily Telegraph in June recorded a worker at SCAS's 111 call centre in Bicester, Oxfordshire, saying all staff had "killed someone indirectly".
After the report prompted an investigation in January, the Care Quality Commission said the service was "safe and effective".
The ambulance trust said that a 16% increase in call volume meant phone handlers could not answer calls "as quickly as we would like".
In January alone, the service received 173,563 calls on both their 999 and 111 phone lines.
SCAS has also said that a recruitment shortfall has contributed to issues in responding to calls.
A spokesperson added: "We are working hard to improve our response to the patients who require our assistance.
"We are continuing to recruit staff to the NHS 111 service across our area."
SCAS provides ambulance services for Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire.

Summary:


A man who helped his son plot a robbery, during which a man was killed, has had his jail term increased.

Article: Prof April McMahon was appointed to the role on a five-year term in August 2011.
She has informed the university's chancellor she wants to step down at the end of her term in July 2016.
During her tenure, she refuted allegations that the university was being run "like a dictatorship" following staff suspensions.
Prof McMahon said she was making the announcement now "to allow for an orderly handover and for succession planning".
She said she was "immensely proud" of the work she had done, adding it had been a "pleasure and a privilege to serve and lead" the university and to work through "the difficulties we have had to confront".
Chancellor Sir Emyr Jones Parry said: "I am deeply grateful to the vice-chancellor for her positive contributions to Aberystwyth University over these past years, and for her consideration in giving early notice of her intentions so we can ensure the best possible handover.
"Personally, and on behalf of the council, I wish her every success in the future."

Summary: The vice-chancellor of Aberystwyth University will step down in 2016, she has announced.
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Article: That is one of the criticisms in a report from the IMF's Independent Evaluation Office (IEO).
It says the handling of the crisis raises issues of transparency and accountability.
The IEO acknowledged, however, that the crisis posed "extraordinary challenges" to policy makers.
The report, which looked at the bailouts for Greece, Portugal and Ireland, examines the IMF's role in a crisis it was quickly drawn into.
The first bailout was agreed for Greece in 2010. Although it was funded mainly by the rest of the Eurozone there was a contribution from the IMF as well.
Financial packages for Ireland and Portugal followed.
The IEO report focuses on these three programmes. Later the IMF also got involved in a second package for Greece and one for Cyprus. In the case of Spain and a third bailout for Greece the IMF has contributed advice but not finance - or at least not yet for the third Greek package.
The programmes were controversial. Critics said the austerity - intended to get government borrowing needs down - was excessive and did immense economic and social damage.
The IEO report says that in the case of Greece and Portugal, the IMF's economic growth projections were too optimistic. A more realistic assessment would have allowed countries to prepare better and might have persuaded the Eurozone countries to provide more generous financial aid.
There is also criticism of the process by which Greece came to get what's called "exceptional access" finance - assistance above the limits that normally apply to member countries seeking help.
Such access was limited to cases where the country's debt could be regarded as sustainable "with a high probability".  Greece did not pass that test, so financial assistance would have required the private creditors to take losses on what they were owed first.
But there was great reluctance in the Eurozone to allow that, so a new exemption was introduced to the IMF approach policy for cases where there was a high risk of international financial contagion.
It was a change of policy and...

Summary: The International Monetary Fund was "overly optimistic" about economic growth in Eurozone countries that received bailouts.
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Article: The Inverness Half Marathon and 5k runs were held on Sunday.
Thousands of people, from athletes to running enthusiasts, took part in the events.
The men's and women's winners of the half marathon were Shettleston Harriers' Weynay Ghebresilasie and Fionnuala Ross.
Photographer Paul Campbell captured some of Sunday's action.

Summary: All images are copyrighted.
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Article: A Met Police whistleblower claimed rape and sexual offences were being under-reported by as much as a quarter.
And a former West Midlands chief inspector described practices such as recording thefts as "lost property".
Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin said he was "shocked" by the claims of such manipulation "on such a wide scale".
Metropolitan Police constable James Patrick - who is currently awaiting disciplinary proceedings - told the Commons public administration committee his concerns had begun after he joined the force in 2009.
He had found robberies being logged as "theft snatch" in order to get them "off the books", he said.
After raising his concerns with an assistant commissioner, PC Patrick was moved into a specialist role looking at the measurement of crime levels, where he found disparities between numbers of burglary reports and those finally recorded.
"Burglary is an area where crimes are downgraded or moved into other brackets, such as criminal damage for attempted burglaries, or other types of thefts," he said.
An audit carried out by analysts inside the Met found that "as many as 300 burglaries would disappear within a couple of weeks", he told the committee.
Analysing 12 months of data,  PC Patrick said he had also found that "the Met had effectively been under-recording rape and serious sexual offences by between 22% and 25%".
PC Patrick said he had learnt that, in an effort to avoid the perception of serious sex crimes going undetected, "a preference had developed to try to justify 'no crime' on the basis of mental health or similar issues of vulnerability or by saying that the victim has refused to disclose to them".
Former West Midlands chief inspector Dr Rodger Patrick - no relation of the constable - backed his account: "This is my experience as well. You can see that in the investigations that are being carried out, victims are being pressurised."
PC Patrick told the committee that massaging statistics had become "an ingrained part of policing culture".
London's target of a 20% crime...

Summary: Police forces across England and Wales are routinely manipulating crime statistics in order to meet targets, a committee of MPs has heard.
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Article: It also had reason to believe that money would be used to pay political bribes.
The deal was concluded while Shell was operating under a probation order for a separate corruption case in Nigeria.
Shell said it did not believe its employees acted illegally.
OPL 245 is an oilfield off the coast of Nigeria whose estimated nine billion barrels of oil are worth nearly half a trillion dollars at today's prices. Shell has been active in Nigeria for nearly 60 years and was keen to acquire the field.
New evidence shows just how far Shell was prepared to go to get its hands on it.
Standing between Shell and its prize was Dan Etete, whose company acquired the rights to OPL 245 for a tiny sum while he was oil minister of Nigeria. He was later convicted of money laundering in a different case.
Shell and the Italian oil company ENI eventually acquired OPL 245 in 2011 - by paying $1.3bn to the Nigerian government.
The government promptly passed on more than $1bn of the money to a company called Malabu, which was controlled by Dan Etete.
Emails obtained by anti-corruption charities Global Witness and Finance Uncovered, and seen by the BBC, show that Shell representatives were negotiating with Etete for a year before the deal was finalised.
In March 2010, an email from a former MI6 officer employed by Shell shows the company believed Etete stood to benefit from the deal.
"Etete can smell the money. If, at 70 years old, he does turn his nose up at 1.2 bill he is completely certifiable and we should then probably just hold out until nature takes its course with him."
That email was forwarded to the then Shell chief executive Peter Voser - one of the most powerful men in the oil business - showing knowledge of Etete's involvement went right to the top.
Representatives of Peter Voser declined to comment.
Shell also had good reason to suspect that hundreds of millions would end up in the pockets of Nigerian politicians including the former President Goodluck Jonathan.
In an email from July, the same Shell employee says Etete's...

Summary: The BBC has seen evidence that top executives at Shell knew money paid to the Nigerian government for a vast oil field would be passed to a convicted money-launderer.
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Article: Son Paul Cooke was jailed for almost 30 years for a robbery and knife attack that led to the death of Ronald Smith, in his 60s, in West Bromwich.
Colin Raymond Cooke, 62, who was jailed for seven years, has had his term increased to 11-and-a-half years at London's Criminal Appeal Court,
He had been convicted of conspiracy to rob and assisting an offender.
The father had been jailed for seven years at Wolverhampton Crown Court in May this year.
Paul Cooke was one of several men who plundered Mr Smith's house in Cottage Walk in May 2015. Others involved in the raid have not been traced.

Summary: